Basically, it would appear that they've taken the bridge and scanner/sensor array domes and "supersized" them in relation to the overall size and proportion of the ship, and then (again if what we've seen in the trailer, and Vektors "accurate as far as anyone can tell so far" attempt at matching) abandoned the "philosophical" rational for them being what they were before.

I'm really hoping that we won't see this done this way in the film... because it just MADE SENSE that the "bridge dome" contained the BRIDGE... and just the bridge. At least, it did to me. Having it be a "pointless kewl shape" as it would APPEAR is the case now is... well, at best it's a little annoying. Again, IMHO.

It's not the SHAPES, exactly, that I care about... it's the LOGICAL FUNCTIONALITY of the design. If what we've seen in the trailer is accurate, they've abandoned that and THAT will annoy me.

On the other hand, if the idea is that the B/C deck superstructure "used" to be only 1 deck thick (Pre-TOS) (making the p-hull only 10... or even just 9... decks thick instead of the TOS-established 11 decks)... THAT I could live with, I 'spose. It would establish that between the time the did this and the time we first saw the ship, they rebuilt the B/C deck superstructure entirely (which isn't unreasonable for a refit) and added some overall height to the design in the process, but left the saucer structure itself unaltered.

Again, I'm HOPING that the ship we see in the film that's supposed to be "our" Enterprise is actually that ship. If there's an alternate reality version, well... in THAT case I can deal with it being pink with green polkadots and 2000 km long and wouldn't blanche...

... as long as we end up the movie back in the "real" universe we all know, and MOST of us love.

In the special Star Trek room were about 50 action figures, a few phasers, playsets, Spock's ring, Spock's ears and the new Enterprise. The action figures were not the final versions, but you could hardly tell that they weren't from the original tv-series but from the
new movie. Kirk wore his famous yellow uniform (and black trousers), Spock his blue one (a little bit darker though) and Scotty the red one. The Leonard Nimoy Spock had a white monk-like robe, that looked like a variation on the one he wore in The Search for Spock. Highlight was Zoe Zaldana as the new Uhura. She wore the same red communication uniform, but this time the skirt was much shorter and there was much more emphasis on her breasts. In this movie she will give Seven of Nine a run for her money! The phasers and communicators were almost the same as in TOS. Even the sounds were identical. And then: the new Enterprise. As a toy it had a great TOS feel to it. It's a little more "organic" than the original one and I think the two warp engines and the "bite" taken from the central body are a little bit bigger. The floor of the new transporter room is red, by the way. Also shown was another spaceship. It resembled an octopus and could have appeared in one of the Matrix sequels. I don't think it was Romulan.

Gotta agree about the skirt - these things originally barely covered the matching underwear. This description is obviously the impression of a single individual - or the action figure may be slightly exaggerated.

Cutting the outfit more snugly around the breasts is certainly easy enough to imagine, if even less supportive of military tradition and decorum.

Obviously, it's being made of something totally kewl, dude! since that appears to have been the primary consideration, how kewl it looks.

Click to expand...

Nope, not like that's ever happened in Trek before... give me a break - ever single F/X model choice despite whatever supposed reasoning was given for it being a certain way was chosen for how it would *look on screen* in the end. Its after all a fiction, not a science lesson.

Captain Robert April said:
Obviously, it's being made of something totally kewl, dude! since that appears to have been the primary consideration, how kewl it looks.

This is what happens when you start playing games with these kinds of longstanding assumptions, like the bulk of work on the Enterprise's construction being done in orbit. Ya tend to ignore the reasons why that assumption was made in the first place, like maybe it makes a helluva lot more sense to build a ship of that size in orbit. Never mind that nothing in canon spells out the process explicitly, the logical problems alone should be enough to chuck this notion of building it on the ground out the nearest airlock.

Click to expand...

Maybe there's some minor plot point that necessitated building it on the ground, like Starfleet executives (I'm mean, Admirals) sitting nearby in their lounge chairs and admiring the ship while sipping Banana Daiquiris or soemthing.

Seriously, though, I hope the images of this ship are not going to be the final product in the movie. From what little I'm seeing here, it seems to be taking on certain of the visual traits that made the TMP refit Enterprise so disappointing. That hull lettering looks so goofy, it's laughable. It's so 1979. Toss out the disco ball and slap on the block lettering! And what's up with that hideous busy assembly around the lower saucer dome? That always struck me to be one of the mistakes of the refit. Bring back the glowing dome, without the assembly!

Starship Polaris said:
Report on the ship from ToyFair Germany, according to www.aintitcool.com:

In the special Star Trek room were about 50 action figures, a few phasers, playsets, Spock's ring, Spock's ears and the new Enterprise. The action figures were not the final versions, but you could hardly tell that they weren't from the original tv-series but from the
new movie. Kirk wore his famous yellow uniform (and black trousers), Spock his blue one (a little bit darker though) and Scotty the red one. The Leonard Nimoy Spock had a white monk-like robe, that looked like a variation on the one he wore in The Search for Spock. Highlight was Zoe Zaldana as the new Uhura. She wore the same red communication uniform, but this time the skirt was much shorter and there was much more emphasis on her breasts. In this movie she will give Seven of Nine a run for her money! The phasers and communicators were almost the same as in TOS. Even the sounds were identical. And then: the new Enterprise. As a toy it had a great TOS feel to it. It's a little more "organic" than the original one and I think the two warp engines and the "bite" taken from the central body are a little bit bigger. The floor of the new transporter room is red, by the way. Also shown was another spaceship. It resembled an octopus and could have appeared in one of the Matrix sequels. I don't think it was Romulan.

Hello. I'm new to these forums, but thought I would throw in my unsolicited 2 cents anyway. My only problem with the whole building process shown in the teaser, is the use of stick welders. Sure it looks gritty and all, but Star Trek is supposed to take place in the future, and using a stick welder to build any vessel of that size is simply idiotic by todays technology and standards. Even hulls of ocean liners are welded by machines using lasers. I'm trying to keep my hopes up that this movie won't destroy Star Trek, but if filmmakers aren't even aware of the world around them, how are fans supposed to trust them with the Star Trek world I live in..lol

Airartist75 said:
Hello. I'm new to these forums, but thought I would throw in my unsolicited 2 cents anyway. My only problem with the whole building process shown in the teaser, is the use of stick welders. Sure it looks gritty and all, but Star Trek is supposed to take place in the future, and using a stick welder to build any vessel of that size is simply idiotic by todays technology and standards. Even hulls of ocean liners are welded by machines using lasers. I'm trying to keep my hopes up that this movie won't destroy Star Trek, but if filmmakers aren't even aware of the world around them, how are fans supposed to trust them with the Star Trek world I live in..lol

Click to expand...

Not wanting to be "confrontational"... ... but you're mistaken on a few points there.

First off... there's no such thing as "stick welding." There are a variety of different welding processes, but there is no process called that. (I know what you mean, but being technically accurate is important when discussing technical matters.)

What you're seeing here is called "resistance welding." Basically, you apply a high-power electric charge to the rod of "fill material" and the opposite charge to the base material. When you touch the rod to the material you're welding, a current flows. The resistance at the point of contact is the highest in the circuit, so that point is where the most heat is generated. The heat at that point is sufficient to melt the fill material and the base material, and the melted material merges.

It's called "fill material" because there's almost always a small gap between two plates or structural elements where you're doing this, so you form a fillet of "new" material at that point.

Here's what a typical welded joint, using this type of method, would look like in cross-section. You can see the "fillet" and you can see the two zones of "recrystalization" on either side... between the effectively untreated base metal. Of course, the delineations aren't nearly so clear-cut in reality... it all pretty much "blends" together... but it gives you the idea at least.

For a basic primer on welding, this isn't a bad place to start... though it is JUST a primer...

Your comment that this is "old fashioned" and not used anymore is just wrong. It's the most well-understood, most well-developed, most RELIABLE method we currently have. While there has been some work using beam-welding done, and there's even a small amount of "real life" usage of that sort of technology, it's typically used in very small situations (nanotech work). I've used it to make small electrical connections, for instance.

What they'll be using in ~250 years from now is anybody's guess... but it's not unreasonable to assume that they MIGHT still be using the most straightforward process available.

On the other hand... the trailer might be intended to be purely figurative and illustrative.

^ Cary, I love your detailed explanations of welding. I was a studio art major in college, and did a fair bit of welding projects, mostly MIG on big ole sheets and chunks of raw steel. It was lots of fun (except on hot spring days when I stupidly wore sandals, and had tiny little sparks hitting my feet )